DIBELS

The DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators for Basic Early Literacy Skills) window opens this week. We have a team of K-2 DIBELS evaluators who are our most seasoned teachers, who have also taught multiple grade levels, and who are in co-teaching situations so they can be released to test. This becomes even more important again this year because not only do teachers want to know how their children have progressed, how they are doing as teachers, but this information will be used to decide which teachers in our county will get Performance (merit) Pay. The top 25% of teachers in each "cell" will get a supplement for outstanding performance.

The exact "how this is done" is a little murkey to most teachers, tied up between the Teachers' Union and County administration's mountain of rules and regulations, but teachers do know that their students must demonstrate "progress." DIBELS, of course, offers a limited snapshot of how a student is doing. For instance, it doesn't include oral language, vocabulary, comprehension or writing in these early grades - all of which are important indicators of a child's literacy development. If teachers taught only what is tested, a child would leave the early grades with a warped and limited knowledge. Most teachers, at my school anyway, do what is right and teach a more balanced approach. The phonemic awareness, phonics and fluency sills that are tested do give important information and teachers have learned to analyze and use this information in providing initial instruction, intervention and remediation. Safety nets (pullout) are in place for struggling students, as well as in-class tutoring by most teachers, and our Target Team (Intervention Team) is second to none in making sure that children do not fall through the cracks. In a "fair" system every single early childhood teacher at my school would receive performance pay... and most do. It is nice to see them reinforced for all their hard work and really hard to explain when it doesn't happen...

Art Extravaganza

This week is Art Extravaganza Week. It's a time when we celebrate all of the arts. The halls are alive with colorful art projects done throughout the year (samples of each Kindergarten class' art work are displayed in the slide show below). Every student at Chets Creek has at least one piece of their best work displayed!

Each day this week Art, Music and Media presented an assembly to enhance our appreciation of the arts. On Monday we enjoyed the Riverside Guitar Quartet. On Tuesday we were entertained by the Kelly-Scott Jazz 6-tet! Did you ever think of the theme to the Flintstones as jazz? Tuesday night brought families to the school to participate in art and craft classes. On Wednesday it was an assembly by Kuniko Yamamoto, Japanese Storyteller. Thursday brought us muralist Cliff Beaman, and on Friday graphic designer Tom Sapp who actually designed a mascot for Chets Creek! some of the events are displayed in the slideshow below.

On Friday night the school was filled with families and local artisans that came to display their craft and to allow students to see art and music at its best. Each class has gathered a theme basket (kindergarten baskets are displayed in the slide show below) that were auctioned off in a silent auction. The class usually selects the theme and then PTA moms send a letter asking each family to send in an item for the basket to represent the theme. All the class gifts are gathered together in a single themed class basket, auctioned off by the PTA and then the money is given back to support the arts program all year long. We usually raise around $2000 in the silent auction. We are so proud of our PTA and Resource support team that make all of this happen for our children. It is also a way to remind us all that it's not just about the "testing" - it's about the whole child. Our work in the arts supports the academic achievement of all of our multi-talented children! Long live the arts!

More Pattern Books

At our Kindergarten Teacher Meeting today, teachers once again shared some of the pattern books their children are writing. Below are a few samples:

From Karen Meissner's class, this repeating line pattern book:

The Playground

by Kiana

I like the swings. I like to swing on the swings.

I like the slide. I like to slide on the slide.

I like the monkey bars. I like to climb on the monkey bars.

I like the grass. I like to run on the grass.

I don't like the climbing rock wall.

Cheryl Dillard shared this repeating line pattern book.

Pug Dogs

by Roxanne

What do pugs do? They sit on your lap to watch TV.

What do pugs do? They follow you.

What do pugs do? They love you.

Do you want a pug too?

From Mrs. Dillard's classroom, a repeating line book. The interesting thing about this book is that Kristina used some of the vocabulary words that she has been learning through our Star Vocabulary Unit!

The Pets
by Kristina
I like pets.
I do not like big black cats.
I do not like imitating peacocks.
I do not like curious monkeys.
I do not like mischievous bunnies at all.
I do like beautiful butterflies.

From the Mackarados, this repeating line pattern book was written after their Earth Day study .
Please Save the Earth
by Francesca
Please save the Earth. Pick up the trash if you see it.
Please save the Earth. Plant flowers and trees.
Please save the Earth. Save the water when you brush your teeth.
Please save the Earth. Turn off the electricity.
Please save the Earth. Recycle.
That's what I do to help the Earth.

From Ms. Stresen-Reuter and Mrs. Harbour's class, this repeating line pattern book:
In My Backyard
by Zachary
Do kangaroos live in my backyard? No, but grass lives in my backyard.
Do deers live in my backyard? No, but worms do.
Do lions live in my backyard? No, but crickets do.
Do dinosaurs live in my backyard? No, but grasshoppers do.
I see crickets, worms, grasshoppers in my backyard!

From Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Mallon's class, this repeating line book.
by Carter
I started to read a book and the nurse came in.
I started to watch TV and the nurse came in.
I started to talk to Jackson and the nurse came in.
I started to play my PSP and the nurse came in.
I don't like when the nurse comes in.

Another from Mrs. Johnson/Mallon's class.
by Carson
There was a schoolroom, a learning school room,
where everyone was learning.
There was a schoolroom, a learning school room,
and in that school room were kids.
There was a schoolroom, a learning school room,
and in that school room there was a teacher.
There was a schoolroom, a learning school room,
and in that school room there was books.
There was a schoolroom, a learning school room,
and in that school room there was caterpillars.
There was a schoolroom, a learning school room,
and in that school room was everything!

New Core Reading Series...

Today I was part of a group of three from my school that was invited to lunch with schools from across the county to introduce the new core reading series. The Superintendent announced his own "Book of the Month" program called "Real Men Read" that will reinforce character traits each month. This will be funded by Scholastic and will be done in addition to the Principal's Book of the Month at each school. It seems like the perfect compliment to our Chets Creek Character Education Resource. Next on the agenda was a series of thank yous covering most of the literacy administrators and literacy vendors. David Cooper was the guest speaker, an author of the reading program and also of The Struggling Reader. He was entertaining - nothing controversial there.

Having been on the adoption committee, I am excited about the reading series being customized for Duval County and formatted with Readers' and Writers' Workshop. I was most interested today in looking through the Writers' Workshop lessons for K-1 because the samples had seemed extremely weak in the draft copy. Unfortunately those lessons are still being written so they were still unavailable. While we certainly wouldn't want those lessons hurried along at the risk of getting the best lessons we can, I did wonder what part of lessons being written right now would be considered research based? Where is the research to assure us if we follow these lessons that our students will be successful on our state's 4th grade writing test? It will be interesting to look through them when they are available to compare them with what is working for us now. Will the writing "learning guides" (much like our Pacing Guides) be written by those teachers, especially 4th grade teachers, who have gotten the highest writing scores who have the most experience with success? Our experience has been that teachers "buy in" when they have been part of the decision making. I hope that this is one of the places where the teachers who have actually taught the lessons will be used to make the decisions.

The idea and the work of this adoption has been to get the entire district moving in the same direction in literacy. It is a noble goal and one that has not been our pattern in the past. However, it will take a lot at my school to get teachers excited about the same old stories - stories that didn't really excite them the first time around. On the other hand, adding to our leveled libraries will be a welcome treat in such tight financial times and using the DRA2 as a progress monitoring piece will be both familiar and positive for our teachers - at least to our primary teachers. Many things, such as the same author and genre studies that we are already familiar with on each grade level and the rituals and routines of the First 30 Days being integrated into the reading series will be both familiar and welcome. Certainly there seem to be more bells and whistles in this adoption. The possibility for more technology has the potential of making less work and quicker organization for teachers, but the professional development needed to access all of this seems daunting. It will take a Herculean effort to accomplish so much in this next year with a strong alliance between professional development, instructional technology and literacy to pull it off.

Hopefully this reading series will offer support to the new teacher but will just be another tool in the seasoned teacher's belt. It is my fervent hope that we will not make the mistake of the scripted Reading First Schools and drum out the creativity and art of a master teacher in the name of research-based. There is room for both.

This should be an interesting adoption, as we struggle with new expectations - a layer of new administrative control - and change - and compare those expectations with what we know has worked so successfully for us in the past. However, we look forward to the challenge because in the discourse, the disequilibrium, and the struggle to explain, justify and examine our beliefs, we will find the best path for our children Stay tuned....

Another Standard Snapshot #3

Standard Snapshots are those "snapshots" of our work that we send home to parents to help them benchmark their own child's work. Each parent receives the standard snapshot which is a piece of student work that meets the standard. The two-sided colored paper (a different color paper for each grade level) includes a child's standard work on one side and commentary on the other side to explain how the work meets the standard. In this case, the standard piece in kindergarten is a response to literature - the writing unit just completed. Attached to the snapshot will be a piece of each child's work so the parent gets a standards piece, why it meets the standard and their own child's work of the same task. The idea is that parents can look at the standard piece of student work and compare how their own child is doing. Most student work is kept in the child's portfolio and doesn't go home so this is a quick look for families at how their child is doing in writing. It is important to us that we pick an "at standard" piece for the snapshot so that parents can see if their child's work exceeds the standard or maybe does not meet the standard. It's a way to train parents on what standard work looks like and what their own grade level expectation should be. Below is this week's Kindergarten Standard Snapshot on Response to Literature.

Pattern Books

After reading First Grade Writers, Kindergarten and first grade teachers decided to use the chapter on Pattern Books as a unit in the spring of kindergarten and also in the fall of first grade. The author, Stephanie Parsons, is a part of Lucy Calkins Teachers' College in New York City at Columbia University so these additional units were developed with Units of Study for Primary Writing: A Yearlong Unit (K-2) in mind. The units in First Grade Writers are meant to be additions specifically for first grade (she also has unit additions for 2nd grade). Philosophically the units fit right in with what we were already doing.

Kindergarten teachers generally chose labels, repeating line, and question and answer patterns to begin the easiest patterns. Some teachers have also moved into before and after patterns and days of the week patterns in these early weeks of the unit.

Below are some of the pattern books that kindergartners have written that were shared during Teacher Meeting today. Spelling has been corrected to make the patterns easier to read.

From the Mackarado's, a starting place, a book of labels:

My Lunch

by Cole

My lunchbox

My sandwich

My chips

My drink

My dessert

My napkin

I like lunch.

From Mrs. Harbour and Ms. Stresen-Reuter's class after their field trip to the hospital, this repeating line pattern book:

My Hospital Kit

by Emily

I give my puppy a wristband because he knows names.

I give my puppy band aids because he might be hurt.

I give my puppy shots because that gives him medicine.

I give my puppy a treat bag because he is good.

From Ms. Lewis' class, this very sad repeating line pattern book:

I Used to Have Favorites

by Sophia

I used to have a hamster but we sold him.

I used to have a fish but he died.

I used to have a dog but he died.

I used to have a best friend but she moved.

From Mrs. Harbour and Ms. Stresen-Reuter's class, a question and answer pattern book:

What Lives at the Zoo?

by Dylan

What lives at the zoo?

Does a dog live at the zoo?

No, but a snake lives at the zoo.

What lives at the zoo?
Does a cat live at the zoo?
No, but a giraffe lives at the zoo.

What lives at the zoo?
Does an octopus live at the zoo?
No, but an elephant lives at the zoo.

What lives at the zoo?
Do ducks live at the zoo?
No, but buffaloes lives at the zoo.

I know that giraffes, snakes, and elephant all live at the zoo.

From Ms. Lewis' Kindergarten, a question and answer pattern book:

Where is My Family?

by Julia

Katherine, where are you?

Are you under the bed? No.

Are you under the couch? No.

Are you behind the shelf? Yes.

I found you!

Katherine, do you know where mom is?

Is she in the kitchen? No.

Is she in the dining room? No

Is she in the backyard? Yes!

Mom, do you know where dad is? No.

Is he upstairs? No.

Is he in his car? No.

Is he in the garage? Yes.

Hey dad, wanna go golfing?

Ready. Set. Putt!

From Ms. Sasso's class, a before and after pattern book:

Before I Came to Kindergarten

by Julianna

Before I came to kindergarten I was nervous.

Now I love kindergarten.

Before I came to kindergarten I could love on my sister all day.

Now I can love on my sister before and after school.

Before I came to kindergarten I ate lunch at home.

Now I eat lunch at school.

Before I came to kindergarten I played all day.

Now I work instead of playing.

This is from Mrs. Harbour and Ms. Stresen-Reuter's class after they noticed the pattern of days of the week in Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar:

My Backyard

by Payton

On Monday I swim in the backyard with my sister.

On Tuesday I played kickball in the backyard with my sister.

On Wednesday I played hide and seek in my backyard with my sister.

On Thursday I played freeze tag in the backyard with my sister.

On Friday I played nothing with my sister.

The end

These simple pattern illustrations show the types of books that children are being read as they notice the patterns that they see and the ways that they can adapt those patterns in their own writings of books. Can't wait until next week to see what the children produce.

Field Trip Shirts

Each Kindergarten class orders its own field trip shirts. Each class is a different color so that a teacher can easily identify her class on a trip. The tee-shirts are kept at school to make sure they are worn on field trip days and then sent home after the last field trip to keep. What I love about the shirts is that on the back are 100 sight words! As children are waiting in line they can look on the shirt of the child in front of them as the teachers play games - Find the word that rhymes with fan (can). Find a word that means look (see). Find a word that is the opposite of before (after). When the shirts go home for the summer, parents have a great list of words to practice over the summer to get ready for first grade! Now this is a GREAT idea!

Teacher of the Year Celebration

Chets Creek has always celebrated it's Teacher of the Year in the way that I think all teachers should be celebrated.

On the morning of the Eddy's the school came together by grade level. The grade level of the Teacher of the Year decides on a theme for the celebration and decorates for the event. The theme for this year's Kindergarten Teacher of the Year Haley Alvarado was Super Heroes. The table decorations featured Haley's head on the top of a curvy Wonder Woman - too too cute! Each grade level brought something for breakfast that we enjoyed as the festivities began. Haley really is one of those special people that is a Super Hero to us all.

The festivities began, as they always do, with a PowerPoint salute to the Teacher of the Year which is a "This is Your Life," presenting the teacher from the time she is a child to present in pictures with music. There are always a few "ahhhs" and whistles. This year's video was even more special because during the PowerPoint Haley announced for the first time that she is expecting her second child! Next, each grade level presented a skit about the special teacher. The skits are usually irreverent and so much fun! This year was no exception! We laughed uncontrollably. We cried. We just enjoyed being teachers! Each grade level traditionally presents the teacher with a gift but this year all the grade levels got together and presented a monetary donation to Children and Family Services Foster Care program to honor Haley for being a foster mom. It brought tears to us all. The Kindergarten Team also honored Haley with a brick that will be part of the flag walk celebrating our tenth year anniversary.

The day ended with the Eddy Awards where we dressed up, enjoyed dinner and a new Duval County Teacher of the Year was crowned. It's a wonderful celebration for our most deserving teacher.

Haley's class honored her on Friday in her classroom where all of the children dressed as their favorite super hero. Melanie Holtsman taught the children to sign "Wind Beneath My Wings" by Bette Midler because the chorus is, "Did you ever know that you're my hero?" Lahna Benson, now a fourth grader, who had Haley for Kindergarten and 1st grade, signed the verses while Haley's kindergartners signed the chorus. They entertained at a morning breakfast. I understand they sang to a very tearful teacher!

Teacher of the Year is really not about a single teacher. It's about celebrating the vocation that we have each chosen. It is a reminder to us of all of the characteristics that make exceptional teachers and it reminds us of all the reasons we wanted to be a teacher. Actually it's quite a humbling experience for most Teachers of the Year. For the rest of us, it just makes us proud to have chosen this profession! Congratulations Haley! You are a role model to us all! Let us raise our Jello shots to you - To Haley!

Visitors from Around the World

It's not unusual to have visitors in our Kindergarten classrooms several times a week. Last year alone we hosted over 450 visitors, not including the hundreds of teachers that visited us virtually by peeking into our classrooms during live video lessons every week! Visitors come from in county, from other places in the state, from other states and occasionally from outside the United States. Sometimes we see administrators and sometimes teachers and occasionally parents. For instance, next week we have teachers and administrators scheduled from Texas and New Mexico. But last Friday we once again hosted a very distinguished early childhood educator from China, Ge Yang. She has a daughter, Betty Fang S. Bienert, living in Jacksonville and spent an entire day at the school earlier in the month. However, she was back on Friday to spend the morning in our Kindergarten inclusion class to see how we deal so successfully with children that have unique challenges. Her daughter speaks fluent English and Chinese but Ms. Yang only speaks Chinese. It was so interesting to watch her interact with the children. Smiles and laughter are the same in any language! She took pages of notes (in Chinese, of course!) and through her daughter asked many interesting, thought provoking questions. We plan to keep in touch with her after she goes home because she says that students in China begin learning English in second grade! The opportunity of students writing to students across the world would be so exciting! There is no question that having so many visitors make us better!

Working on the Work (WOW 4)

Kindergarten teachers met this week for their fourth full day of professional development. They began the day with a demonstration lesson in Math with a twist. Instead of watching one of their peers, they watched a 2nd grade teacher's lesson, Brook Brown, so that they could see where the pieces they are teaching now are going to fit as the children move forward. Michelle Ellis, Kindergarten Math Coach, debriefed with the group.

Teachers each brought a class set of response-to-literature final pieces. They read some of their higher pieces to each other so they could benchmark off each other's work and then were given time to analyze Using Rubrics to Improve Student Writing, Kindergarten to score their entire set of papers. As they had questions they read their papers to peers for a second opinion. This collegial conversation helped all teachers make sure they understand the rubric language.

Teachers also discussed students to be included in a special safety net for the remainder of the year taught by Maria Mallon. Teachers chose 12 students who are on the line between passing and failing for this last push.

The day continued with Randi Timmons, Elizabeth Conte and Rachael Happ sharing the work they have done with pattern books. Based on the work of First Grade Writers, this threesome completed this unit before the rest of the grade level. That put them into a position to share what they have learned. They shared the sequence of lessons that they taught, showed artifacts made with the children, read books that they used for specific patterns, discussed which patterns they taught and why, and shared student work. Front loading this information for the rest of the grade level relieved stress as teachers prepare for the "sprint to the end."

The final component of the day was professional development around poetry which is the last unit we will teach. To provide more structure we looked at the Poetry Unit (Kindergarten Unit #4) from the Denver Project which dovetails easily into our standards-based design. Teachers shared some of their favorite poetry books and some of the lessons they have used to successfully promote poetry. Several teachers talked about the poetry cafes that they used at the end of their poetry unit last year as a celebration.

All in all this day was about wrapping up lessons and previewing curriculum for the final nine weeks. It was a packed day but left teachers with a good idea of what is to come for the remainder of the year. Get ready, get set - GO!

Rain Makes Applesauce

We walked into the Media Center this morning with each table decorated with applesauce and apples as a teaser for this month's principal pick. April's Book of the Month was Principal Susan Phillips' favorite childhood book. It was actually published in 1964 and was a Caldecott Honor Book. Susan said that she checked it out of the library so often as a child that when the book was retired from her local library, the librarian actually gave it to her! Susan dedicated this book to her mother, her first teacher, and also to our own Art teacher, Jen Snead. The illustrations in this book are intricate and fun. Jen is President of the Duval County Art Council and led a group at the School Board meeting this week in support of keeping the arts at a time when the budget is tight. She made us all so proud! Rain Makes Applesauce is the perfect poem to introduce Poetry to kindergarten students. It whimsical and imaginative! And that's not just silly talk! Take a look at this month's pick by clicking on the eyes!

Welcome to the Crab Shack!

Several years ago, we studied the book, Fish! as a whole school book study. When we came back to school in January that year we came back to the faculty Dining Room turned into the Chets Creek Crab Shack! We enjoyed fried fish, cheese grits and coleslaw with homemade desserts during our lunch time. Since then the Chets Creek Crab Shack has become an annual teacher appreciation event to boost morale. The Principal dresses as a fisherman with her red felt crab hat and allows each teacher to draw a prize from her fish bucket. As teachers come in she yells - Welcome to the Crab Shack, much like they do at the original world famous Pike Place Fish Market. Teachers enjoy gift certificates to Target and Books-a-million, bags of baked goldfish crackers, gummy worms for "bait" and even real goldfish that decorate the table as prizes. The Fish Fry is a reminder to us all of the lessons we learned when we studied Fish!

Choose your attitude!

Play!

Make their day!

Be present in the moment!

Welcome to the Chets Creek Crab Shack!

Kindergarten Round-up

Howdy Partner! It's that time of year again when we welcome all those little cow pokes who will be joining our family next year for a night of "getting to know you." About a hundred families joined Chets Creek Sheriff (aka Principal) Susan Phillips for an informational meeting about getting ready for Kindergarten. Children each got their own bandana as a welcome gift and also got a chance to meet their new Principal. They also met "Miss KK," the Book Fairy (Media Specialist) and "Miss Julie" who will be the first to greet them at the front desk. Then the families were divided into groups so that they could tour the school with one of the Kindergarten teachers. Parents asked about class size, what they could do to prepare their little ones between now and August, what Resources the school has, and a million other questions, but most of all, they got a feel for the type of kid-friendly school that will be the home for next several years. Welcome, our newest learners!

Spring Break?

We are out this week for Spring Break! Yiipppeeee! Well...maybe I'm not so-o-o-o excited -because every day this week I have been in my office at school writing IEPs. Yuck! It's not that I mind meeting with parents or writing about their child or even taking the time to look at everything I have on a particular child and reflect on how our year has been and where I need to go. In fact, I love all of those parts of my job - but it's these pesky IEPs!

Early in my career I had a chance to meet parents in NC who lobbied in Washington for Public Law 94:142 - the law that guaranteed all children the right to a public school education. Many of these parents had children that had been refused a public school education for a variety of reason - usually because they weren't toilet trained. I listened as they passionately told the stories of their individual children. I understood that they wanted the same thing for their child that I wanted for mine - a chance to live the best life they could. I listened - and I cried - as they talked about their dream to have a group of professionals sit down at a table with them to discuss how best - together - we could make a difference and make dreams come true. In those early days, we struggled with this idea that children with such significant needs would be part of our educational system and I'm sure parents had many sleepless nights and bitter battles with school personnel, but they persevered and children began to do things we never thought possible. Miracles happened!

However, we must have done a really poor job of meeting the "letter" of the law because as the years have gone by requirements and mandates and new interpretations have been stacked on every year until now I feel buried by all of the "dot your i's and cross your t's". I just want to sit down with parents and celebrate and plan and dream, but instead I am shackled to a set of paperwork that has become a nightmare. As long as I fill in every little blank with a drop down (don't write anything of your own because it might not be compliant), then no one seems to care about the quality of the IEP - Is my plan even one that makes sense? Those first parents that I met so many years ago must be turning over in their graves, because, by insisting on meeting the letter of the law, we have forgotten the intent.

This year I am working with -oh yet another new IEP program - always "new and improved" - yeah, maybe, but I'm writing short quips from the drop down menu instead of letting the parents know that Unique's smile lights up the room or that Shaun's hugs make me smile even on rainy days or that Dominic makes me laugh every single day. I was just thinking that maybe I need to get someone else to discuss my IEPs so I can man the computer and make sure I've done everything correctly (if that is even possible!) What am I thinking?!! Forget that! Regardless of the extreme mountain of paperwork (that almost makes me want to jump ship to general education like so many of my peers), I promise that I will use this time with parents to let them know how much I value them and their child in my life. I WILL listen to them instead of being obsessed that they have sign and initial each item of the 20 page IEP (I signed less when I bought my last house!) Maybe the IEPs won't be perfect and maybe we'll get audited and someone will fuss at me because I didn't check the third box on the right, but I'll sleep at night knowing that Mikayla's grandma leaves knowing that I adore her little red headed whirlwind and that grandma's sacrifices have been so well worth it.

I know the pendulum swings, so for many years I have been waiting for someone to realize the the pendulum is stuck and is so far out of whack, that it's really absurd. There's really no where - further out there - for the pendulum to swing (how many more lawsuits can be threatened?) except back in the direction of caring honestly and sincerely and making sense. When will the insanity stop? Probably not before the end of my Spring Break... so... back to writing...